U.S. Dems Seek Hamas-Linked Funds

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WASHINGTON, DC

The Democratic Party has sought election funds from groups and individuals linked to Hamas, a report said.
The Investigative Project on Terrorism said Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood supporters have been targeted for contributions to the Democratic Party. The group cited a fundraiser in May 2012 headlined by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the House, and attended by a leading Muslim activist linked to Saudi Arabia.

“In attendance were about 20 members of a Syrian dissident group and 10 officials representing Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas front groups,” IPT said. “Council on American Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad was perhaps the most prominent attendee and played a key role in organizing the event.”

In a statement on Nov. 1, IPT also posted a photograph of Ms. Pelosi, a former House speaker, with Awad. Tickets for the May 16 fundraiser, meant to finance Democratic candidates for Congress, ranged from $5,000 to $38,800.

The fundraiser was hosted by Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, as well as Rep. Keith Ellison and Rep. Andre Carson. During the fundraiser,

Ms. Pelosi sat at the same table with Awad and a leading Brotherhood supporter, Jamal Barzinji, founder of the the Saudi-financed Muslim Students Association.

“Senior Democratic Party establishment figures seem intent on engaging and accommodating these new and sometimes radical elements in their party as an up-and-coming new constituency and money source,” IPT said. “Most mainstream Democrats, have yet to grasp the full extent of their party’s infiltration.”

In 2001, Barzinji was named in a federal affidavit as being closely associated with Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas. In 2007, federal prosecutors said CAIR was conspiring with the Muslim Brotherhood to support what they termed terrorists.

“Speaking to the attendees in her 10-minute address, she [Ms. Pelosi] said the Democratic Party should become the natural home of Muslim-Americans, because Republicans fan the flames of ‘Islamophobia,'” IPT said. “She focused exclusively on Islamophobia, a term devised by radical Islamists and their apologists to silence critics, while avoiding any mention of terrorism carried out by Islamists in the United States.”

Ellison refused to respond to the IPT report. The Washington-based organization said Brotherhood-aligned activists have targeted several Republicans, including former House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Peter Hoekstra. The report suggested that Muslim money to the Democratic Party played a role in its removal of pro-Israel positions at the convention in September 2012.

“The DCCC fundraiser exemplifies the deep inroads that Islamist radicals, like those mentioned above, have made in the Democratic Party over the past few years to the exclusion of more moderate elements in the American Muslim community,” IPT said. “These inroads may already be creating internal tension within the Democratic Party.”